FIRST THOUGHTS FROM SACELE

Hi all
Thanks for all the encouraging messages via email and Facebook. We arrive here at 
8 pm on Saturday evening and are settled into our little room. Brief updates under the three F's - Familiar, Forgotten and Firsts........

Familiar

• Great to see the team again - Daniel, Ema, Liz, Avram, Alina, George, Simona and Ion - they all send their love to St Andrew's
• We visited the Roma villages Tarlungeni and Zizin on Sunday and saw many of the children we had met in the past - many of whom would be in our English classes
• The Mission House - seeing the great paint job our girls did downstairs and the plaster boarding upstairs reminded Sue of the visit in March with Jay and the youth
• Road signs warning of horses and carts

Forgotten

• How great the dual language church service is, here at FAST
• Just how beautiful the forests and mountains look as a backdrop to the journey to Sacele in the sunshine (yes it's sunny and warm, so no need of the thermals just yet!)
• Horse and carts loaded with hay and turnips
• Young boys riding bareback
• That there is now a coffee shop in the centre serving cappuccino - Stan happy :)
• How humbling it is to see how proud the families are of their new homes - two rooms and a wood burner, no electrics or loo

Firsts

• There is a team of 14 electricians and builders here from a church in Scotland - hearing testimonies from strapping Glaswegians was something else
• And because there are 15 men here and no women Sue doesn't have to queue for the loo or the showers :)
• Seeing the (one) cowman bringing all the village cattle down from the pastures on the hill - and on reaching the village he leaves them, they all start running and all find their way to their own homes. We were amazed - homing cows! 
• Taught our first English lessons today - two groups of 8 to 11 year olds  back to back - interesting, challenging, exhausting - but awesome!

Prayer please

• The new youth centre is up and running, but as a 'joint project' with City Hall Ema and Daniel are finding that dealing with the bureaucracy is a real challenge. Please pray that any problems will be easily resolved.
• Our first session of conversational English with the mothers tomorrow - without a translator!
• Our first 'self-esteem' session on Thursday with the teenagers - Stan with the boys and Sue with the girls
• Sue is speaking at the Women's Group on Thursday
• That the Lord continues to go before us every day

With love Sue and Stan xx